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Nearly 200 Los Angeles County employees earned more than a quarter of a million dollars in 2009, according to a list of the county's top earners released late Monday in response to a Public Records Act request from The Times.

California's computer problems, which have already cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, have mounted as state officials cut short work on a $208-million DMV technology overhaul that is only half done. The project was intended to revamp the process for registering vehicles and issuing driver's licenses, with the entire overhaul scheduled to be finished this year. But state officials said they were canceling the vehicle registration component because little progress was being made. The decision is a setback for the Department of Motor Vehicles, which has a history of such stumbles.

Sacramento, CA — Governor Jerry Brown signed AB144 by state Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-Pasadena Monday morning. The bill will make it a misdemeanor to carry an exposed and unloaded handgun in public or in vehicles. Violators could face up to a year in prison or a potential fine of $1,000 when the law takes effect Jan 1.

The website has collated a variety of records including cables, intelligence reports and congressional correspondence and is releasing them in a searchable form on Monday.

Assange has carried out much of the work from his refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London and told the Press Association that the records highlighted the "vast range and scope" of US influence around the world.

Tiny Payout In TSA Breast Exposure Lawsuit
Texan, 24, paid $2350 to settle airport frisking claim

JUNE 1--The U.S. government paid a paltry $2350 to settle a lawsuit brought by a Texas woman who sued the Transportation Security Administration after her breasts were exposed during a vigorous frisking at a Texas airport, records show.

Taxpayers have paid out nearly $1 million per year in settlements to congressional employees who have been harassed or otherwise treated badly by their political bosses over the past 14 years, according to records from the Office of Compliance.

Law enforcement agencies in the U.S. made more than 1.3 million requests for consumers’ cellphone records in 2011, an alarming surge over previous years that reflected the increasingly gray area between privacy and technology. Cellphone carriers, responding to inquiries from a member of Congress, reported responding to as many as thousands of police requests daily for customers’ locations, text messages and call details, frequently without warrants.

The Republican-controlled Arkansas state Senate approved a bill on Wednesday that would exempt from public disclosure the names and zip codes of gun owners.

Their livelihood was being threatened, and they were tired of waiting for government help, so business owners and residents on Hawaii’s Kauai island pulled together and completed a $4 million repair job to a state park — for free.